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ImPRESS with this Chicken Salad Panini

Who doesn’t love a classic chicken salad sandwich? How about a panini? If either of those sound good to you, then you’ll love this chicken salad panini with bacon bits, ranch dressing and mayonnaise.

Here are all of the ingredients:

2-1/2 C. Chicken breast

1/4 C. Light mayonnaise

2 Tbsp. Bacon bits

2 Tbsp. Green onion

2 Tbsp. Light ranch salad dressing

8 Slices Multigrain bread

1 Tomato

4 Slices Reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese slices

First, you need to cook your chicken. I used 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts and boiled them in water for 20-25 minutes. Once you’ve checked that they are all cooked through, set the breasts in a bowl and put them in the refrigerator to cool while you prep the rest of the dish.

At this point, measure out all of your other ingredients, cut your green onion into thin slices, slice your tomato and start heating up your grill pan (you can also use a regular pan if you don’t have this). Spray your pan with non-stick spray or olive oil and put it over a medium heat and allow it to get up to temperature.

Once you have everything else prepped and you’re waiting for the pan to heat up, remove your chicken from the refrigerator. At this point it should be cooled off significantly. You can choose to dice your chicken or, as I prefer, shred it. To shred, take two forks and pull the chicken apart until it is in bite sized pieces. As you’re cutting into the breasts you may realize you need to chill it a little longer (it should be cool enough to handle).

Now it’s time to prep your panini! Take one slice of multigrain bread and layer on the chicken salad mixture, two slices of American cheese and two slices of tomato. Top it off with another slice of multigrain bread and throw it onto your hot grill pan. You’ll need to place something heavy on top to get the pressed panini effect. I used a heavy metal pan, but another popular press is a brick wrapped in tin foil. Whatever you use just make sure it’s clean, heavy and heat resistant.

Let the panini grill for about 3 minutes per side and you should get some nice grill marks and color!